Telecommunications service providers who purchase switching systems may often desire to make modifications or extensions to the purchased system. The extensions are generally subscriber features which may provide additional revenue to the service provider. For example, the service provider may wish to implement new call processing features, develop custom features for special end users, collect specific information about a particular call, and collect specific traffic metering and measurement (TM&M) data about certain call processing operations.
However, adding extensions to the switching systems has proven difficult in the past because the switching systems are large and complex. Generally, only the switching system manufacturer and vendor has the expertise to affect the changes desired. Therefore, there may be some lead time required to implement these changes.